1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to selecting or otherwise providing access to electronic content and services, such as but not limited to content and service provided by a cable television service provider.
2. Background Art
Electronic content and services may be broadcasted or otherwise carried to users according to any number of protocols, standards, and formats, depending on any number of variables. Some of these parameters may provide better quality than the other formats, where quality may be defined in terms of transmission speeds, processing demands, viewing quality, size, or any number of other characteristics. The ability to access or otherwise support higher quality content may be dependent on capabilities of devices used to access the same.
For example, if content is carried in television signals, the ability of the devices to process certain television signals may determine when the users thereof are able to access higher quality content. Television signals may be broadcasted according to any number of standards (e.g., Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG-3 or MPEG-4)) and formats (e.g., Standard Definition (SD) or High Definition (HD)). The ability of the devices to process the corresponding signals generally determines whether to access the various services is possible.
Some devices may be configured to process both several types of quality standards and/or formats, i.e., some devices may be able to process both SD and HD television signals. The ability of these devices may be advantageous if some content is broadcast at one quality and other content is broadcast at another quality, as it allows such devices to access both types of content. The ability of these devices to process both low and high quality content can be problematic if the content is broadcast in both SD and HD, which is common if the service provider is required to support SD only devices.
The problem generally relates to selecting lower quality signals when higher quality signals are available. For example, the users may select an SD television channel even though the same content is available on a supported HD television channel, which is problematic at least in so far as it is desirable that the customers desires to watch the highest quality content available. The present invention contemplates a solution wherein selection of (automatic in at least one embodiment) the higher quality content is provided or otherwise facilitated when the lower quality content is selected yet the higher quality content is available or otherwise supported.